Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction?
by Blake Nichols
Summary: This collection of short stories are about supernatural, strange, and weird things happening. You read the stories and decide if they're true or false, and then find out if they're fact or fiction. Along the lines of The Twilight Zone.
1. Chapter 1: The Vision

'**The Vision'**

"What a dream that had been," Jack thought while driving to the bus station. Jack just had a crazy dream –or nightmare- fifteen minutes ago. He woke up from the nightmare dripping sweat and having the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach that something bad was going to happen.

Jack was worried and knew that he had to stop his dream from really happening. He had premonitions before, and they usually always came true. _But this dream couldn't possibly happen?_

He pulled into the bus stations main entrance and parked his car right in front of the building. He knew the matter at hand was urgent so he ran in the station without even checking if his car was parked crooked or not. Since Jack had worked at the bus station for five years, he knew exactly where to find his boss's office. He looked at the name on the office door window, which read: Jim Adams.

He charged through the door without knocking. Jim jumped in surprise and spilled some hot coffee onto his professional looking shirt. Jim frowned at Jake. "Look what you made me do."

"Sorry about that-"

"And what the heck do you need to say to me so badly that you couldn't wait?"

Jake replied hastily, "Bus #29, Jim."

Jim looked puzzled. "Bus #29? What about it?"

Jake began, "It's kind of hard to explain, but it's just that I had a dream where Bus #29 goes on its route over the bridge and…"

Jake stayed quiet for a couple of seconds. "Well, come on boy, finish."

"The bridge that Bus #29 is supposed to go over collapses and the bus falls down killing all the passengers."

Jim looked at him seriously for a few seconds before bursting out with laughter. "So let me get this straight. You had a _dream_ where the bus falls and kills everyone. Now what did you think would make me believe that?"

"It has to be a premonition, Jim."

Jim responded, "The bus leaves in two minutes and there's not a missing seat because Christmas is in two days. I couldn't possibly make everybody get-"

Jake interrupted quickly and said, "Did you just say two minutes?"

"Yes, I did." Jake didn't here him though because he was already out the door and running for the parking road where the buses exit. "Hey, wait!"

Jim ran after Jake and caught up to him just as Bus #29 came out of its loading station. Jake darted across the snow the front of the bus and waved his arms up and down frantically. The bus came to a halt and Ian, the bus driver, got out to see what the problem was.

Ian inquired Jake, "Why'd you run in front of my bus?"

"You can't take this bus on its route," Jake told him. "I had this dream where the bridge collapses and kills everybody on the bus."

Ian's face showed a glimmer of bewilderment, but the look left just as fast as it had came. Jim looked at Ian critically and said, "You know we can't stop this bus. There are too many people that would be disappointed. Don't believe him, it's just a silly dream."

Ian took a couple seconds to think and then decided what he would do. "Jim, I can't drive this bus."

Jim scowled. "Why not."

"I think," said Ian, "that Jake is right."

Jim gazed at Ian angrily until a bus driver named Lara came out of the building. "Jim, you might want to come hear this."

"Okay," Jim yelled back. "You guys don't move. I'll be back in a minute to handle this whole situation out."

Jim walked briskly back inside the building to hear whatever it was that they wanted him to hear. Ian stepped back on the bus to talk to the passengers, leaving Jake to ponder about what had just happened.

_If this bridge doesn't really collapse, I'll probably lose my job._ Then Jake considered that maybe he shouldn't have done anything at all. _But what if it really does collapse and I saved them all._

Jake stopped putting himself down and hoped that he was doing the right thing. It had been three minutes already and Jim still wasn't back outside. Soon enough though, Jim came walking back outside the front door and glanced at Jake with a mixed appearance of astonishment and fear.

Jim called for Ian to get outside. Jake and Ian waited anxiously for Jim to say something. Jim said, "I don't know how to put this but… the bridge on Tree Street just collapsed a minute ago." "It's the same bridge that this bus," he pointed to Bus #29, "was scheduled to cross over that same minute ago when the bridge fell."

"So, I was-"

"Yes, Jake, you were right. All these people were saved thanks to you," Jim said sternly.

Ian said, "Well, I'll tell all the people on the bus what just occurred. "I'm sure some of them will want to get off the bus and use some other sort of transportation."

Jim told Jake, "I guess I will have to start believing everything you say," and walked back inside. Jake went to a nearby bench and sat down. Ian was right; some passengers did get off the bus.

Jake caught what one old lady was saying angrily in mid-sentence, "-this bus almost got me killed! Where's the nearest airport, I'm taking an airplane!" She went inside and called for a taxi to come pick her up. When the taxi driver got there, she told him not to bother to drive on Tree Street because of the bridge.

Ian got the lady settled down before she went in the taxi, went to answer some questions the passengers had, and turned the bus off. _ I'm glad I had that premonition, if not, all of the people on the bus would've died._

Jake walked over and asked Ian something that had been on his mind. "You had no possible way to tell if I was telling the truth or not. So why did you believe me?"

"I was feeling bad about leaving too."

"Why?"

"You probably won't believe me but…"

Jake was sure that he would believe him, but didn't know what Ian thought he would believe. He was amazed by what Ian told him.

"I believed you because I had that exact same dream."

**Is this story True or False. Fact or Fiction. You decide. Go to the chapter titled: Fact or Fiction Answers to find out, which stories are fact, and which are fiction.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Wrong Turn

'The Wrong Turn' 

Jeff looked down at his watch and realized that he was seventeen minutes late for his delivery. He was delivering two mattresses to someone's home, but couldn't find their house. The weird thing about was that the house was located right in his hometown. He even tried using a map, but got no closer to finding the house than when he started. Jeff wished the town wasn't so big, with so many streets. He turned left on a familiar street and pulled over to the side of the road to figure out where exactly he was.

He shook his head in confusion. _ If I don't find this house, I'm going to be in big trouble with my boss._ He was aggravated out of his mind and couldn't stand it. He still couldn't find where he was, so he kept driving until he saw a street he knew. He hated asking for directions, but determined that he would have to. Jeff hurriedly pulled into a Seven-Eleven parking space.

The store doorbell ringed as he walked through the front doors. He looked over at the lady at the cash register, who was reading an issue of People. Jeff walked over to the counter and put the paper with the street address on it and started to talk. "Excuse me, could you tell me if you knew where this street address," he pointed to the address on the paper, "is located."

She took the paper off the counter and glanced at the address and muttered, "I'm sorry, I'm not really good at remembering street names or giving directions. I don't have a clue as to where this place is located." Then she shrugged.

Jeff felt hopeless. "Okay, thanks." Jeff took the paper back and got back in his car.

He stated the engine up and started to back up out of the parking and back onto the street. _Does this place even exist? If so, where? I'm never going to find it._

Jeff stared down at the paper while he was driving and tried to rack his brain for any memory of the street address. Then Jack looked up in alarm to see that he was about to run into an old lady in her nightgown. He turned the steering wheel to the right as hard as he could and swerved into an alley behind an apartment building. He slammed his foot on the brakes and came skidding to a halt. He felt something fall in the back of the truck on his mattresses. He looked in the rearview mirror and couldn't see the lady in the street anywhere.

He heard a faint noise growing louder and got out of the car. He ran to the street, but the lady was nowhere to be seen. The noise became louder to it was easy to tell that the noise was a baby crying. He jogged back to his truck to look for the source of the noise. Jeff gazed up to the top of the mattresses in the back of the truck to see a horror stricken baby crying.

The first thing he thought was that he had been driving with this baby on the back of the truck. He went on top of the truck and got the baby down off the mattresses and put him on the ground where he comforted him. Jeff remembered that something had fell on the back of his truck when he braked. He peered up at the apartment building to see that one of the windows was open and the curtains were billowing in the wind.

"Did you fall from there?" Jeff asked, while pointing to the window. Jeff thought that he looked more like a two-year-old kid than a baby. The kid nodded. "Are you okay?" Again, the kid nodded.

A janitor, who had been cleaning up the street, came rushing over to Jeff and the kid. He told Jeff, "I saw this boy crying. Is he okay? He lives upstairs with his grandmother, Jane."

Jeff told him what had just taken place. The janitor said, "We need to go see if Jane knows what her grandson did." The all went into the hotel and Jeff inquired the janitor, "How are we going to get into the room-"

"Don't worry, I've got a key to every door in this building."

They walked up some stairs and the janitor stopped at a door, in which he put a key into and unlocked. "Jane? Are you there? Anybody?" Silence.

Jeff set the boy down in a chair and told him to sit tight, while the janitor went into the living room. Jeff heard the janitor yell, "Come quick! Jane's unconscious!" Jeff rushed into the room to see that Jane was lying facedown on the carpet. "Help me turn her over."

They turned her over and Jeff thought that there was something very recognizable about her. Then it hit him. _That's the old lady who was in the street!_ _She even has on the same nightgown!_

The janitor snapped Jeff out of his thoughts and back into reality. "I'm one of her friends. I know she takes a certain medicine that she has to take or she'll faint. I'll go get it. Maybe that'll help her." The janitor went into the bathroom and got Jane's medicine. He fed it to her.

A minute later of patiently waiting, Jane stirred and woke up. The first thing she said was, "Where's my grandson?"

The janitor responded, "He's here and he's okay. We need to call an ambulance."

"I don't need any ambulance. I forgot to take my medicine, and passed out. Last thing I remember was getting up to get my grandson because he was on top of the chair and looked like he was about to fall out the window."

Jeff still couldn't believe that this was the same woman. He told her calmly, "Your grandson fell out the window onto some mattresses in the back of my truck," Jane looked like she was going to pass out again. "But he didn't get her at all." Jane let out a relieved whoosh of air.

Jane demanded again, "Where is he?"

"He's sitting in a chair in the other room."

Jane got up and went to her grandson and gave him a big hug. "Don't you ever scare your grandma like that again." He nodded. Jane went on, "I'm going to never have that window open again."

Jeff didn't think that he would ever tell anybody about seeing her in the street. _Who would believe me? That's the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me._

It seemed to Jeff that what happened was that the lady left her body to direct him to that alley at the exact time the kid fell.

**Is this story True or False. Fact or Fiction. You decide. Go to the chapter titled: Fact or Fiction Answers to find out, which stories are fact, and which are fiction.**


	3. Chapter 3: Second Sight

'Second Sight' 

Tina strolled into a twenty-four hour diner on the side of a road in Minnesota. She'd been traveling for days trying see as much as she could with her new eyes. Tina used to be blind until a woman named Jenny Smith, right in Minnesota, was murdered. She got Jenny's eyes and was trying to see as much as she could with them. So far, she had been to a couple of states and had seen many things. She loved having a second chance to see.

The diner was right next to the hotel she was staying at, so she wanted to get a drink a quick cup of coffee. As she came in the diner, she noticed a sign that told her to seat herself and that someone would come to her table to help her. The diner was pretty empty except for a family sitting in a corner and a man at the back of the restaurant, almost in the shadows. Right away, Tina felt like she recognized him. She shrugged it off and took a seat at a table. With in thirty seconds a waitress came by and asked what she would like to order.

"I'll just get the coffee."

"Do you want cream or sugar?"

Tina responded, "Sugar, please."

The waitress walked away and Tina looked around at her surroundings. For the second time, she looked over at the man in the back. She found she couldn't stop looking at him. She knew she had seen him somewhere. She looked down at the table when she noticed that she they had been staring at each other.

Tina was still gazing down at the table when the waitress came back with her coffee. The waitress set the coffee down on the table in front of Tina and they both said their thanks. Then she paid the waitress the money for the coffee. Tina opened the sugar, poured it in her drink, and put the coffee to her mouth, sipping a little bit at a time.

She wondered where she had seen this man before. He looked like he hadn't slept for days. He had bags under his eyes too. Tina went back to sipping her coffee and started to feel uncomfortable. She squirmed in her seat and saw that the man had just glance at her.

She tried to finish her coffee promptly, but then the man got up and came over to her. As he approached her, she saw a menacing look on his face she had not seen before. He demanded her, "Tell me why you keep staring me."

She murmured, "You just look familiar. I'm sorry."

He went back to his seat and continued to watch her. Tina got up and went out of the diner and began to walk to her hotel room. She pulled her key out of her pocket. Her hands were suddenly jerked backed and handcuffed. She reeled around to see who had done it. It had been the man from the back table.

He took her key from her pinned hands and covered her mouth with his other hand. In the hand holding the key, was a bottle of liquor. He must've been drinking it while in the shadows. He inserted the key into her hotel room door and shoved her inside. Once he closed the door, he placed her on the bed and told her to stay put.

She sulked, "What do you want with me?"

He pulled up a chair at the foot of the bed. "I'm not leaving until you tell me why you were really looking at me."

"I'm sorry. I was just being curious."

"I don't think you're telling the truth. Whom do you work for?"

Tina pleaded, "What are you talking about? Please let me go."

All he said was no. He sat there drinking a swig of liquor every once in a while. His eyelids launched into a series of flicking, which almost caused him to fall asleep. Tina desperately hoped he would.

She sat there for what felt like an eternity, staring at the wall in hopelessness. Am _I ever going to get out of here? Why did he do this?_ Finally, the man snoozed off. Just as she started to get up, he straightened his head in alarm and woke back up. Tina just kept being tolerant and hoped he would go to sleep. She closed her eyes and did a quick prayer to God. When she opened her eyes, the man was asleep again.

This time he looked like he was out for good. She took her chance and got up from the bed. Slowly, she crept towards the door and opened with her hands behind her back. She got the key from off the floor and exited her room. She made sure that the door was closed completely shut before she started to run.

She ran as fast as she could, kicking rocks along the way, until she found the hotel lobby building. She ran in and stopped at the counter. The man behind the counter stared at her and wondered why she was handcuffed and panting.

He asked, "Are you okay, Ma'am.

"No, call the police. Quick. A man just handcuffed me and kept me in my hotel room."

He called the police, and they rushed over fast. A police officer asked what happened and she explained everything to him. She gave him the key to the room. They sent three officers in the room to retrieve the man. She stood outside in the cold looking up at the stars. She watched them bring the man out, handcuff his hands behind his back, and place him in a police car. She thought, "He deserves it."

The officer she had been talking to, and suddenly started to talk to her again. "You've done us a lot of help. We've been looking for this man for two months. He's wanted for a murder that happened right here in Minnesota not too long ago. He killed a woman," he said sadly, "named Jenny Smith." Tina gasped in shock. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing," she whispered.

Tina was astonished. She knew that the man had looked familiar. Her eyes had witnessed the murder of Jenny Smith and just couldn't stop watching him.

**Is this story True or False. Fact or Fiction. You decide. Go to the chapter titled: Fact or Fiction Answers to find out, which stories are fact, and which are fiction.**


	4. Fact or Fiction Answers

**Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction?**

**Fact or Fiction Answers**

**Table of Contents:**

**Chapter 1: The Vision – Fiction**

**Chapter 2: The Wrong Turn – Fact**

**Chapter 3: Second Sight - Fact**

**All Fact stories were based on actual similar events.**


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